Yaʿqub Burdʿoyo Jacob Baradaeus (d. 578) [Syr. Orth.]

Bp. of Edessa (542–78) and missionary. Born in Tella, and educated in
the nearby monastery of Phesilta. In 527/8 he was sent to Constantinople to
look after the interests of the Miaphysites. In Constantinople Justinian’s
wife Theodora had put the Palace of Hormisdas at the
disposal of the considerable number of Miaphysite refugees who had gathered
there. In 542/3, when the Ghassanid leader, Ḥārith b. Gabala, asked Theodora
for some bishops to look after the non-Chalcedonian commmunities, Yaʿqub and
Theodore were secretly consecrated in Constantinople by Theodosius,
patr.
of Alexandria, and were designated as bishops
of Edessa and of (the Ghassanid) Ḥirta. Yaʿqub
subsequently played an important role in providing for the pastoral needs of
Miaphysite communities all over the Near East; often pursued by the imperial
authorities, he travelled in disguise, whence his nickname burdʿoyo ‘(dressed in) saddle-cloth’, Hellenized as Baradaios (the back formation of ‘Bar Adai’ is due to
a modern misinterpretation). Towards the end of his life he was much
involved in the opposition to Pawlos of Beth Ukomo (Paul ‘the Black’;
patr.
from 564 to 577) and in the
‘Tritheist’ controversy.

The two main biographical accounts are: 1. Yuḥanon of Ephesus’ ‘Lives of Eastern Saints’, ch. 49–50 (ed. Brooks,
PO
18, 488–95 and
PO
19,
499–504); and 2. a longer anonymous Life (also in Brooks,
PO
19, 574–614). The latter in particular attributes to him an
exaggerated number of ordinations. Writing from a European perspective, and
influenced by the subsequent hostile designation of the Syr. Orth. as
‘Jacobites’, Kleyn described Yaʿqub as ‘the founder of the Monophysite
Church’. While undoubtedly he played a very important role, along with
Theodore, in ensuring the survival of the Syriac (and other) communities who
were opposed to the imperial religious policy which sought to impose the
Chalcedonian Definition on the Church, he should better be seen as someone
motivated primarily by pastoral concerns.

Nine letters written by him (sometimes alongside others) are preserved in a
ms. containing a large number of miaphysite texts (ed. Chabot); other texts
under his name are an Anaphora, a profession of faith, and a homily on the
Annunciation preserved only in Arabic translation; the authenticity of the
last two, in particular, is doubtful (the homily is also transmitted under
the name of Patr. Nuḥ the Lebanese!).